Online Dictionaries, Glossaries and Encyclopedias - 101

Ignore that man. We're attempting to update the thing, if
only section by section as the mood waxes and wanes. - 5/20/04

Ignore that man behind the curtain. When he says "currently under heavy
construction", what he really means is that he hasn't touched this page
in over two years and can't find the motivation to move a brick, much
less build a wall. - 2/10/04

This is currently under heavy construction. Things may move around
but they'll still be here somewhere unless I can no longer find them on the
web. My main goal in this version is to remove the artificial
distinction I've made between glossaries, dictionaries and
encyclopedias. I'm throwing them all together and distinguishing
via subject categories, or at least attempting to do so without
bollixing things up too much.

An annotated listing of dictionaries, glossaries and encyclopedias
that have some sort of version online or, if you will, a glossary
of glossaries. All suggestions for additions are welcome and
I really can't think of any reason why I wouldn't add anything
new as long as it resembles a glossary, dictionary or
encyclopedia, i.e. if I discriminate it'll be on the basis
of form and most definitely not on the basis of content.
Well, I might be prone to not list many more glossaries etc.
of computer terms as we've got those coming out of our wazoo
as it is.

I've made some attempt at categorization that,
as is inevitable with all such attempts, ends up somewhere between
completely arbitrary and meticulously exact - hopefully closer to
the latter extreme.

If you feel the need to copy the
thing wholesale then do be a decent enough sort to reference
or acknowledge the original source if only to allow those
perusing your version access to newer entries you may not
have. In my most recent updating I've found four other
sites that've obviously borrowed the whole thing without
attribution. That is just not right.

And, by the way, if you find a dead link then feel free to
drop me a line about it. Feel even more free to find out
where it went and then drop me a line about it.

"In this dictionary I have attempted to provide a text which explains many of
terms associated with fortifications which were used
between the Iron Age and the 18th century. There are a great number of texts
on the subject of castles and other fortifications of the
period stated but few, if any, modern texts to my knowledge which
specifically explain the terminology used to describe them."

"The nomenclature of bookbinding, its offshoots and more recent
progeny, has not, at least insofar as the present writers have been
able to determine, been presented in a comprehensive dictionary,
although various aspects of the book and its production have been
explored in dictionary form, sometimes superlatively, as in the
American Paper and Pulp Association's `Dictionary of Paper' and
John Carter's `A B C for Book Collectors'. The authors of this volume
hope that it will help fill a considerable gap in the literature
of conservation, one that has for some time been all too evident."

"ODLIS is designed to be a hypertext reference resource for library and
information science professionals, university students and
faculty, and users of all types of libraries. The primary criterion for
including a new term is whether a librarian or other information
professional might reasonably be expected to encounter it at some point
in his (or her) career, or be required to know its meaning in the
course of executing his or her responsibilities as a librarian. The
vocabulary of publishing, printing, book history, literature, and computer
science has been included when, in the author's judgment, a definition
might prove helpful, not only to library and information
professionals, but also to laypersons."

"This glossary of terms associated with the typesetting and printing
industries was put together as a series of
articles in a newsletter called "Desktop Publisher" written, edited,
and published by Henry Budgett
(henry.budgett@usa.net) between 1986 and 1989."

"Language is ever-changing. This is particularly true in prisons, where there is the
motion of people coming and going, a culture based on a unique set of
circumstances, and the need to speak in words that often carry depths of meaning.
There are forms of expression that can never be fully understood by the outside
world. There are also words that vary from race to race, prison to prison -- as well
as slang that find its way into prisons from the outside."

"This is vocabulary that only lower (mostly much lower) class characters would
conprehend, let alone use. Not to be
employed in New Europa's better salons or when trying to pass one's self
off as a flash toff."

"The ability to understand current drug-related street terms is an invaluable tool for
law enforcement, public health, and other criminal justice professionals who work
with the public. The Street Terms database contains over 2,000 street terms that
refer to specific drug types or drug activity."

"The Indiana Prevention Resource Center on-line dictionary contains more
than 3,800 street drug slang terms from the
Indiana Prevention Resource Center files, with more than 1,200
additions from the National Drug and Crime
Clearinghouse slang term list."

"The Encyclopedia of Law and Economics is an ambitious reference
work that attempts to survey the whole law and economics literature
in nearly 5,000 pages. Most entries contain two elements: a review
of the literature, written by an authority in the field, and a quasi
complete bibliography (not just a selection)."

"This glossary will eventually attempt to cover all of the terms and
concepts from international economics, including both
international trade and international finance, at least at the introductory level."

"Certain types of errors crop up over and over in television
shows and movies. Because of this, nitpickers have begun to adopt a
specialized vocabulary. I thought it was time to begin formalizing
these buzz words in one location."

"This coastal glossary includes terminology used in coastal science, engineering, geology, management, nearshore oceanography and the technologies that characterize, measure, describe or quantify the physical properties, processes and changes of the coastal zone."

Darmok is a language spoken by the Darmok race in an episode
of "Star Trek: The New Generation". The language is based on
allusional rather than literal meanings. This is a list of the
phrases in the episode along with their more literal translations.

"Certain types of errors crop up over and over in television
shows and movies. Because of this, nitpickers have begun to adopt a
specialized vocabulary. I thought it was time to begin formalizing
these buzz words in one location."

"Everybody knows about pahking cahs in Hahvihd Yahd, but
there's a lot more to Boston English than that, despite what
Hollywood would have you believe. We have our own way of
pronouncing other words, our own vocabulary, even a unique
grammatical construct."

"Philadelphia is a city of proud and distinct neighborhoods, and the people
who grew up in these neighborhoods often speak in a
proud and unique manner. It's more than an accent, it's an attitude, or as
we pronounce it, addytood."

"The Seattle area, like most other locales, has its own shorthand notations
for referencing different places and locations. The following lexicon is
intended as an interpretive guide for non-Northwesterners who want to get
the inside line on the local lingo."

Britain

"The English language contains a rich array of slang words and phrases.
This can be particularly seen when examining the day to day language of the
average Londoner. A great many London slang terms derive from the Cockney
tradition and fall into the bracket of 'rhyming slang'. Other terms have
been introduced by the influx of other cultures into the capital. The
resulting mishmash has created what academics sometimes call 'Estuary
English' (after the area of the Thames Estuary), although this term is used
more to describe the accent used in the area."

"This is vocabulary that only lower (mostly much lower) class characters would
conprehend, let alone use. Not to be
employed in New Europa's better salons or when trying to pass one's self
off as a flash toff."

"The some two thousand usages on these pages were gathered over the last
several years from books, correspondence, speakers, and
movies connected with the Merseyside area of Liverpool, England. I wanted
to praise and demonstrate the wit and originality of a speech
community which has, in my opinion, too often been dismissed or caricatured
as being other than standard and therefore less than human."

"Coronation Street is a British television programme that has been in continuous
production since
December, 1960. On Coronation Street they speak the Lancashire dialect.
This page describes their words and expressions and is intended for the non-specialist."

Wales

"The Welsh-English and English-Welsh sections currently have 22192 (647 phrases, 919
cross-references, and 41 words considered obsolete in the modern language)
and 15034 (1452 phrases)
unique entries, respectively. Only 15239 of the words on the Welsh-English
side have definitions or
cross-references so far."

"Yes, military pilots really do talk this way! This is not an all-inclusivexi
list of military acronyms, just the type of lingo you're
apt to hear in the Ready-Room, on the flightline, or in the aircraft."

"This dictionary is home to words known as `Playground Slang'. It began simply
as a collection of `slang' children used in school to describe their world.
Over time however, the collection has grown beyond it's original boundaries
and now holds other forms of slang, old games, words to odd songs, and much
more."

"The Encyclopedia of Law and Economics is an ambitious reference
work that attempts to survey the whole law and economics literature
in nearly 5,000 pages. Most entries contain two elements: a review
of the literature, written by an authority in the field, and a quasi
complete bibliography (not just a selection)."

"Explanations for 1000s of law related words, terms and phrases in
the net's most extensive legal dictionary."

"Definitions of words and phrases used in private and public
international law with linked
cross-references to related words and phrases.
Descriptions of international organizations with links (if they exist)
to their on-line
home pages and to other important materials describing the organizations.
Acronyms of international organizations with links to the definitions for those
organizations."

"Researched, written in plain language and provided free of
charge by lawyer Lloyd Duhaime."

"Here is another attempt to make legal jargon decipherable to
the average perplexed reader - and one that succeeds."

"In order to understand past and present Law, you must first
understand the British and American definitions of words used and based in
common law prior to 1900. One of the most accurate sources is
the `Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and
Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims'. The original work
was compiled and written by William C. Anderson and published by
T. H. Flood and Company in Chicago, 1893."

Translation:

"This glossary provides an explanation to many of the terms frequently used
in connection with translation and interpreting. Whether you
need to communicate effectively with translators or translation companies, or
just want to know what Unicode or translation memory are
all about, you'll find the answers here."

The Encyclopedia of Arda is a personal project - a tribute to and a celebration of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The site is intended to evolve into an illustrated hypertext encyclopedia of Tolkien's realms and peoples. This lies a long way in the future, though; if the regions of Eä are vast beyond the thought of Elves and Men, so too are the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

"If accounts of what life was like in the trenches during the
Great War are studied, it becomes evident that the Tommies (and, indeed, the Fritzes on the
opposing side) used and developed a unique slang of their own.
In the British case, the argot of the Western Front seems to be
largely derived from a legacy of Indian and Arabic dialect words picked up and passed
on from the previous campaigns in India and Egypt, coupled with the Tommies'
rather awkward pronunciation of some of the commoner French words
and phrases."

"Yes, military pilots really do talk this way! This is not an all-inclusivexi
list of military acronyms, just the type of lingo you're
apt to hear in the Ready-Room, on the flightline, or in the aircraft."

"In this dictionary I have attempted to provide a text which explains many of
terms associated with fortifications which were used
between the Iron Age and the 18th century. There are a great number of texts
on the subject of castles and other fortifications of the
period stated but few, if any, modern texts to my knowledge which
specifically explain the terminology used to describe them."

"This database chronicles the history of 1,200 Canadian contemporary
music artists from the 1950s to the present. Every entry includes
an extensive artists and/or band biography as well as a comprehensive
discography."

"The National Association of Recording Merchandisers is pleased to
present this glossary containing generic
definitions for basic terms related to the specialized field
of distribution and sale of downloadable music."

"From The Seaman's Friend: Containing a Treatise on Practical Seamanship, with
Plates; A Dictionary of Sea Terms; Customs and Usages of the Merchant Service;
Laws Relating to the Practical Duties of Master and Mariners by
R. H. Dana, Jr. (author of Two Years Before the Mast), 6th Ed.,
Boston, Thomas Groom and Co., 1851."

"This began as collection of terms I had trouble finding elsewhere, plus terms that figured in my life: ( Schooner "Ernestina" usage, Patrick O'Brian reading, research into USS Constitution's battles). Almost immediately expanded to include terminology run into here or there that I found interesting for one reason or another. These days, it's prompted mostly from P. O'Brian books and current maritime non-fiction reading. Though some terms are indeed common, I make an effort _not_ to include those commonly available, to keep it's size manageable."

"The choice of the terms and sewords listed is that they are in use on board commercial ships and should be part of the general knowledge of shipping office, deck or engine officers, among many others.
Terms and abbreviations are permanently changing, errors are often found even in the most famous BA publications (ie: IBC Code).
Therefore this list will be constantly updated, time and resources available, and the source(s) of the information will be mentioned when available."

" The language of sailing is a living language if there ever was one, and usage changes every season. This is a sample of some of the jargon believed to be in current use by top-level sailboat racers."

" This section contains a glossary of terms, definitions and acronyms relevant to ECDIS, electronic charting and fundamentals of electronic positioning systems. Some arguably relevant terms more associated with the compilation of chart data and production control of electronic charts have been deliberately excluded as this publication is intended for a more general audience (the end user). The contents of this glossary include extractions from IHO publication S-52 appendix 3 3rd Edition - December 1997; IEC 61174:1998(E) and American Practical Navigator '95 [Bowditch]."

"Many people are a little fuzzy when it comes to terminology used by yacht charter professionals. The following is not a list of sailing terms, but rather a glossary of terms pertaining to bare boat yacht holidays which often serve to confuse those unfamiliar with industry definitions."

"This English-French dictionary of sailing terms may be useful to English speakers sailing in French-speaking waters. The dictionary follows British English, which may differ slightly in spelling and usage from other English-speaking countries."

"Here is a collection of over 300 descriptions of the parts of the steam
locomotive compiled to assist locomotive enthusiasts to further
their knowledge of the most remarkable mechanical machine ever
created by man. Although it is based on UK practice and design, it has
much of interest to world wide readers and it includes some
historical notes about the development of the steam locomotive."

"The boomers spoke a language of there own, and many of the terms these imaginative and romantic travelers invented still remain in railway parlance. The following is an attempt to establish a glossary of the terms used. It is by no means complete."

"The Department of Theology On-Line Glossary Project is a glossary of
several hundred terms (and growing) for the beginning study
of the Christian and Hebrew Scriptures, and other theological matters."

Pranks and hoaxes and delusions and frauds remind us that we're easily fooled and that we aren't nearly as smart as we sometimes think we are. The trickster, by taking us down a notch, does us a valuable service. It's when we start acting clever that we summon forth the worst of humanity's evils.

So I present this site in the hope that it will inspire as much as it informs or entertains. I think people are all too frequently blind to the ways in which our lives are so very messed up by our culture, and the extent to which we each help to maintain this blindness and this painful absurdity. Sniggling, whether or not it is performed with any such awareness, helps to poke holes in the veil we spend so much time helping each other to construct.

This is the Glossary from the book,
The Flags of Canada, by Alistair B. Fraser.
This glossary is not exhaustive either in the number of terms discussed, or in the range of meanings presented for a particular term. But, it attempts to present the principal vexillological and heraldic terms used in the text.

This is a guide to some of the technical or obscure terms related to the hobby of infiltration. We don't use code language or jargon to exclude anyone, but because it's a specialized hobby we've had to adopt or invent some specialized terms.

One of the most enduring images of nineteenth century medicine is the quack. These images can range from the outrageously alliterative patent medicines which 'cured' everything from cancer to the common cold, or the wandering snake-oil merchant peddling his dubious wares to the curious.

"The World Without CarsDictionary is "dedicated" to Mike Vandeman, UsenetKook of the Month for May 1998,and winner of the Unabomber Surprise,whose tireless efforts to eliminate off-road cycling (in order to build moregolf courses) by annoying readers of alt.mountain-bike and other newsgroupshave been to no avail. To our knowledge "mikey" is the only person weknow to be a member of the "World Without Cars" organization."

The Encyclopedia Astronautica is the single most comprehensive reference for the history of spaceflight. It is a proven and reliable source endorsed by the Encyclopedia Britannica, library associations, NASA, the world's major newspapers and television networks, Internet guides, and leading space writers and historians.

The main purpose in compiling an encyclopedia of this kind is to give the reader access to a fragment of the contents of some of the greater and lesser know works of Celtic literature; including works of mythology, legend, fiction and history. Most of the entries include contributions by two or more author's on the same subject, leaving the reader the opportunity to formulate his/her own conclusions about or interpretation of the matter described.

The EOLSS body of knowledge is an integrated compendium of sixteen encyclopedias. It attempts to forge pathways between disciplines in order to show their interdependence and helps foster the transdisciplinary aspects of the relationship between nature and human society. It deals in detail with interdisciplinary subjects, but it is also disciplinary as each major core subject is covered in great depth, by world experts.

The Internet Encyclopedia is my attempt to take the Internet tradition of open, free protocol specifications, merge it with a 1990s Web presentation, and produce a readable and useful reference to the technical operation of the Internet.

This site has been designed to make accessible to teachers, students, and other interested English- language readers translations of articles from the Encyclopédie edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert in the 18th century.

EcoCyc is a scientific database for the bacterium Escherichia coli K12 MG1655. The EcoCyc project performs literature-based curation of the entire genome, and of transcriptional regulation, transporters, and metabolic pathways.

The Regulatory Fish Encyclopedia (RFE) is a compilation of data in several formats that assists with the accurate identification of fish species. It was developed by FDA's RFE Team to help federal, state, and local officials and purchasers of seafood identify species substitution and economic deception in the marketplace.

A grand challenge in the post-genomic era is a complete computer representation of the cell and the organism, which will enable computational prediction of higher-level complexity of cellular processes and organism behaviors from genomic information. Towards this end we have been developing a bioinformatics resource named KEGG, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, as part of the research projects in the Kanehisa Laboratory of Kyoto University Bioinformatics Center.

Contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according
to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles their histories, uses,
and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs range from ideograms
carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti.